


One Plus One

by thenapkinthief



Category: Life
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-21
Updated: 2009-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-04 22:53:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenapkinthief/pseuds/thenapkinthief
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life fic, set post One, scenes inspired by the closing voice over.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Plus One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [centuries](https://archiveofourown.org/users/centuries/gifts).



**What we learnt as children,**

Crews stands next to her as they watch the desert sands play with the remains of her father's body. She wants to puke feels the bile rising up in her throat, but somehow the lump growing there from the sadness makes it impossible. In the end she turns and looks at Charlie, letting the way the sun play with his hair replace the image burned onto her soul.

Crews sits next to her on her parents sofa. Her mother is across from them, and Dani thought she should do this alone, but at the last moment, at the last second as she opened the car door she was weak and had said strongly, "You coming' Crews." He didn't say anything as he followed her.

She leaves his side only to embrace her mother in her grief. The hold her mother pulls her into doesn't feel half as comforting as Crews' eyes staring straight into hers. She wonders if this is what growing up is.

 

**that one plus one equals two,**

Tidwell is at her door. She's considering ignoring him. She doesn't want to open the door and find him waiting with some attempt to coddle her. She just wants to be, in this moment, she doesn't want to talk about what happened, or what will happen, and it really doesn't bother her anymore that when she's really down, she remembers all of the Zen things and it helps her move forward.

She pulls open the door and watches almost as if she isn't there, as if she's already left the moment. Tidwell comes in to her home with a pizza and a grumble about how it's nothing like the real thing, and she wonders if she has ever felt this alone.

 

**we now know to be false.**

He sits next to her on the hood of the car. They watch over the city, their city, from the advantage of the Hills. They'll get back in eventually and she'll drive him home before she drives herself back down into the mess that constitutes LA. In this moment though they're two partners sitting on the hood of their car, drinking smoothies he has bought for them at some weird health food place he found last month.

They don't _talk_, not really. He's babbling away some inane facts but she knows his heart isn't in it, and as comforting as the incessant chattering has become, she places her hand on his. He quiets instantly.

She tries to pull back her appendage when all of a sudden his fingertips are pressing down into the space between her fingers, trying to tell her something. She pretends not to hear it. As her hand settles back on her thigh she wonders if they'll ever stop just grasping at each other; she _knows_ he's thinking the same thing.

 

**One plus one equals one.**

It is easy to do this. _So_ easy. She reaches one hand behind his neck and pulls it up from where it's licking at her breast to make him kiss her. As he moves into her with one solid movement, she wonders if this is it: if this is where her faith had gone, into this man. And as he moved into her again and all her thoughts began to drift away and all she could feel with him. He touched her and she forgot, for a moment. It was enough.

 

**We even have a word for when you plus another equals one,**

He isn't careful of her, he's just cautious. He isn't afraid she'll break, isn't even that afraid she'll break him, just terrified he'll break _them_.

She wants to appease him. Tell him she can't think about him not being part of her life. Tell him she doesn't _want_ to think about him not being part of her life. But that isn't what who they are.

There comes a day a time where suddenly she's scared too. Scared they'll loose each other, so she reaches across and grabs his hand. Laces her fingers through his and clasps it tighter than is probably comfortable, but she can feel his nails leaving small half moons in her skin so she isn't particularly bothered. "I'm here Crews." Three words, and she knows it's the truth. Knows she's here, and that means he's here too. Her fingers tighten around his hand.

 

**that word is love.**

They've never actually said it. She's known him now for longer than he was inside, she's known him now for longer than he was with his wife. She's known him now for longer than he was partners with Bobby. She's known him now since he'd said to her "I'm sure." And somehow later, it meant when he was sure, she was sure too. But they've never actually said it. They've both started it sometimes, but the other always stopped them, never the right time or place, always something seeming false. When he looks over to her and smiles though, she thinks it doesn't matter. _They know._


End file.
